ACCA conversations Pat Delbridge

In the final episode of the series, Amy Hancock and James Goulsbra talk about their experiences at Accountex 2024 and their key takeaways – the advent of AI but how it can never replace accountants, and how you shouldn’t get sucked into any software without doing your research first. They also mop up all the areas they promised to re-visit in earlier episodes such as their hourly operational costs, re-visiting business plans, certain pieces of software, and planned recruitment – as well as new developments like re-branding.This podcast series complements our hub Creating Tomorrow’s Practice Today – a hub covering regulation, tips from other members and ACCA partners, and how you can build your community. There’s even a checklist that you can use to check your progress. You can check out our hub at https://bit.ly/startyourpracticejourney. 

What does collaborating mean to you? In the penultimate episode of the series, Amy Hancock and James Goulsbra talk about collaborating with staff, clients and other accountants. A support network of other accountants is important for referring work you don’t have capacity or expertise for, but also so that you can have assurance that every practice has similar pain points. Then there’s networking with other industries and with other accountants.This podcast series complements our hub Creating Tomorrow’s Practice Today – a hub covering regulation, tips from other members and ACCA partners, and how you can build your community. There’s even a checklist that you can use to check your progress. You can check out our hub at https://bit.ly/startyourpracticejourney. You’ll find information about building your practice community on the hub at https://bit.ly/networkingandcommunity

Should productivity be based on quality or time taken? In this episode of the series, Amy Hancock and James Goulsbra talk about what productivity means to them, how staff are key to your productivity, and the different KPIs you can use.This podcast series complements our hub Creating Tomorrow’s Practice Today – a hub covering regulation, tips from other members and ACCA partners, and how you can build your community. There’s even a checklist that you can use to check your progress. You can check out our hub at https://bit.ly/startyourpracticejourney. 

Should you recruit an admin person or an accountant first? In this episode of the series, Amy Hancock and James Goulsbra talk about taking on staff – at what point it becomes necessary, whether to recruit an admin role or an accountant role first, how outsourcing can help, using HR consultants, and planning for future recruitment. Who’d have thought that Pilates classes are a great place to recruit….This podcast series complements our hub Creating Tomorrow’s Practice Today – a hub covering regulation, tips from other members and ACCA partners, and how you can build your community. There’s even a checklist that you can use to check your progress. You can check out our hub at https://bit.ly/startyourpracticejourney. 

What should you factor into your pricing? In this episode of the series, Amy Hancock and James Goulsbra talk about pricing - the risk of pricing too low when you first start up, different pricing models, pricing strategy, proposal software, price increases, and the advent of value pricing.This podcast series complements our hub Creating Tomorrow’s Practice Today – a hub covering regulation, tips from other members and ACCA partners, and how you can build your community. There’s even a checklist that you can use to check your progress. You can check out our hub at https://bit.ly/startyourpracticejourney. You’ll find a great video by Carl Reader of d&t about pricing models and unbilled work on the hub at https://bit.ly/pricingandfees, as well as videos by the team at Gravitate Accounting about fee quotations, and Calvin Cooper of CRC Accountancy about valuing what you’re delivering to clients.

What’s the best way to get your new accountancy practice out there? In this episode of the series, Amy Hancock and James Goulsbra talk about marketing your practice using social media as well as more traditional routes, the importance of SEO for your website, and how it isn’t a case of one size fits all. This podcast series complements our hub Creating Tomorrow’s Practice Today – a hub covering regulation, tips from other members and ACCA partners, and how you can build your community. There’s even a checklist that you can use to check your progress. You can check out our hub at https://bit.ly/startyourpracticejourney. You’ll find our marketing podcast series with PracticeWeb in the hub at https://bit.ly/marketingpods alongside two videos by Ashley Leeds - the 15-Minute Guy - about how practice owners can make the most of their LinkedIn profiles to attract clients.